Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-05-29

legislation she could save millions Of
perishing men, who because OF
her being denied the right
Of suffrage are rushing headlong to perdi-
ton. Let us save our SONS and brothers"
she cries. Well, if this be your hearts
desire you can accomplish it. Not at the
polls, not On the public stage, not in the
legislative halls, but where you are more
needed, and where your power is ten fold
greater, and which place none but you can
fill,-namely, the home circle. There the
wisest and best men and women of all ages
agree you can serve your country best.
The trite maxim of Pope, "Just as the
twig is Dent," ETC., consigns you there.
Fletcher directs you there when he says,
"Give me the first ten years of o child's
life and care not who has the rest. The
royal truth, "She who rocks the cradle
rules the world, points you to your home;
and the sacred writings say there is your
sphere of greatest influence and power.
There you can mold character
and shape destinies. This requires all the
give. and goes farther toward directing
legislation and defining the character OF
nations than any parliament or congress in
any land. This power and influence you
can not afford to delegate to colored
nurse. If in the present century the
American cradles are to be rocked by hired
help, who will be the statesmen of the
next? Napoleon was once asked how
France could be saved, and he replied,
"Only by giving us better mothers. EN-
erson says, Nothing influences character
like character" And again, "When
young, not so much what We learn as
from whom we learn" All this privilege
this unmeasured opportunity to influence
for good or bad-this untold power you
are willing to delegate to some
ignorant and irresponsible servant whose
highest motive to act is too often meas
ured by the $3.50 per week wages you pay
your deserving servant, whose deplorsble
condition calls forth so much of your sym
patty. So these women would save our
country!
If your heart is bent on elevating, ameli,
Grating, liberalizing and humanizing
humanity, go where your work will be
most effective, where there is work for all
of you, as mothers or sisters, where the
great majority of the best women of our
age are laboring, and who could as little
be prevailed on to exchange their power
and influence at home for the glittering
bubble CT political fame as you could buy
the beautiful stars. Heaven gave into their
hands this sacred power and influence, and |
peculiarly fitted them for it, so that they
may send out from their homes mighty |
men whose character shall pervade |
all the laws of the land. These women |
know their power as we'll as the grand |
old Roman, Fillipus, when he said: LET |
me look into the faces Of our mothers and |
will read our national destiny century
to come" The tears and entreaties of the |
noble Roman mother, Volumnia, alone |
could conquer Coriolanus and save mighty,
city. A mothers tenderness turned back |
the Volscian hosts, whom two-edged |
swords could not have stayed So in
America, though the cry may go forth,
There is something rotten in Denmark"
yet, remembering that 1.-THE more clear
and crystal is the sky, the uglier seem the
clouds that in it fly" and that "She who
rocks the cradle rules the world" we take
nope and look to our mothers for our men.
w. H. r.